MEPIS's password requirements are annoying. How am I supposed to know the passwords on a liveCD? After some playing with it, I figured out that the password in the demo mode is "demo," but I have no idea what the root password is, which I needed because I was going to set up my wireless network in MEPIS. (I knew the settings would disappear as soon as I logged out, but I wanted to test the network anyway, because I heard that MEPIS is good at handling wireless networks.) Why would a distribution running in RAM bother with passwords in the first place?

Did you try entering "root" for the root password. The Mepis passwords are on the Mepis website, so you should have checked there first.

Thanks, that worked. Nevertheless, it seems pointless for a liveCD to require passwords, at least at the user level.

There's also a file on the Live CD that tells you the passwords. In 3.4.3, it's linux/MEPIS-QUICK-START.html.

I might keep MEPIS despite any features I find eccentric, because I believe in using what works rather than searching for the perfect distribution. Don Quixote is my idol, it's true, but I can find more worthwhile and more interesting things to be quixotic about. If a distribution has an office suite and runs my wireless network, it "works" for me. I'm willing to ignore any annoyances.

joshknape, what is your problem? I have read a couple of your posts and you do nothing but complain about MEPIS.

Have you never tried 'root' as the passwd for the root account before? Shit, some distro's use an obscure word, which has nothing to do with the name of anything, let alone the basic word 'root' (mind you, mySLAX uses toor )

You can always type sudo passwd root and reset the damn thing, if it bothers you so much.

Besides, what is it that you are looking for from Linux?
if you take a gander at http://distrowatch.com you will find a flavour of Linux to suite ANY need you have.